French GP: BAR Friday notes

Opening practice for the 2002 French Grand Prix took place in bright sunshine and warm temperatures today but it proved a difficult first day's running for Lucky Strike B.A.R Honda. Olivier Panis and Jacques Villeneuve ended the day 14th and 17th respectively after struggling with a lack of grip for much of the session. It was an otherwise trouble-free day however so the team are optimistic that the rest of the weekend will bring better things.

Olivier Panis

"Today was a typical Friday, working for the race and trying to find the right balance for the car. We haven't achieved that yet and we still have a lot of work to do with the tyres in particular. We will try a few new things tomorrow including of course a new evolution of the Honda engine, so I am looking forward to a better day."

Jacques Villeneuve

"We've had a hard time today finding the right set-up so it hasn't been the best start to the weekend. We still need to do a lot of work with the tyre options because we haven't been able to get the best from them yet. We're basically looking for more grip so we have to come up with a solution for that but it looks like it could be tougher for us this weekend."

David Richards, Team Principal

"We always anticipated Magny-Cours would be a tough circuit for us. Finding a good balance on the tyres has been exceptionally difficult, as I believe it has for other teams. We will however have the benefit of Honda's latest engine evolution tomorrow and the forecast for Sunday is currently suggesting rain. As usual, you can't read a lot into a Friday."

Driver/Chassis
Jacques Villeneuve
Position: 17th
Best lap time: 1:16.457 (35 laps)
BAR004/06

Olivier Panis
Position: 14th
Best lap time: 1:16.163 (43 laps)
BAR004/08
T-Car BAR004/09

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